Door hinge



Dec. 19, 1950 w. STEINBACH DOOR HINGE Filed May 3, 1949 INVENTOR. #677767 JZWJ'IJdc/F BY ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 19, 1950 UNIT ZE D STATES PATYEN T OFFHIE :DQQR HINGE .Warner .istinbachiMaplewood, N. 1]., assignorto 'Cranford"Development Corporation, Granford, N. 1] .,-a*corpnration of New Jersey .Applicationilvlay 53, 1949,, iSeriaiNo. 91,040

"Will-aims.

;.1 This {invention relates to a door hinge of such construction that its parts may be disconnected and the door opened :from the "outside when locked. It often happens that a child may lock himself in a room and beunable-to'unlock the 7 Or in cases of sickness or door and get out. death it maybeimperativeto enterazroom locked from the inside. As room doors almost universally swing inward, the hinge ,pintles are onthe inside and \cannot be removed by thosesseking to get in. Therefore, if there is no key outside the room, or if, as may well happen, the door has :been locked on the inside by a bolt which crcannotibe sexternallyreached, then the door must be broken down to gain ingress. It is the object of this invention to provide a door hinge, which functioning as an ordinary hinge in ordinary use, can nevertheless have its parts separated by shoulder pressure applied at the hinge edge of the door so that the door will swing inward about the lock edge. In attaining this object I provide a hinge having knuckles ofi-set from the plane of the door leaf in the direction of the doorframe leaf and a multi-part pintle comprising spring-pressed cam detents and bearings for them held in axial alinement during ordinary use. In anemergency, pressure against the door near the hinge causes the parts of the pintle to separate and the door opens.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated a preferred embodiment of my invention. In these drawings:

Figure l is a horizontal section through a doorframe and door equipped with hinges made in accordance with my invention. The full lines show the door in normal, locked position; the broken lines show the door swung partly open about the lock edge;

Figure 2 is a plan view, on a larger scale, looking down upon the pintle edge of my hinge with the leaves in closed position;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 showing the door leaf swung through 180;

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 2 showing the leaves of the hinge separated as they would be when the door is being opened in an emergency;

Figure 5 is a vertical section, on a somewhat larger scale, taken along line 5-5 of Figure 2, and

Figure 6 is an elevation, also on a larger scale, of the hinge shown in Figure 2, looking in the direction of the arrow 6 of Figure 2.

The hinge illustrated in these drawings is a butt hinge having leaves I and 2, knuckles 3 I from .the cordinarylbutt hinge used in ihanging section 6 held within the'knuckleslby means of and 4 and a pintle 5. It difiers in two respects :setscrews ,1. The 51OW61K8Ild of the .top ,p'in'tle section 6, .the upper end .of .the bottom pintl section 6 ,and both .endsof .the middle ,pintle secition ,6 are provided with hemispherical ibearing sockets 8. The knuckles ll of the door leaf are each provided with two spring-pressed detents 9 having hemispherical ends normally thrust outwardly by means of a coil spring l0. Each of these detents is provided with a cylindrical collar H which is slidable within the bore of the knuckle. One end of the bore is provided with an annular shoulder l2 which retains one detent within the knuckle and the other end of the bore is provided with an annular ring I 3 which is fitted within the knuckle and provides a shoulder similar to the shoulder l2 for retaining the upper detent. The annular shoulders l2 and the annular rings 13 form bearings for the detents 9 which guide them in their reciprocating movement and maintain them in axial alignment. These detents normally lie with their hemispherical ends fitting within the hemispherical sockets 8 of the sections 6, the detents serving as journals and the sockets as bearings for them. In ordinary use as the door is swung about the axis of the pintle, the detents 5 turn within the sockets B, the springs It! being of suilicient strength to hold the parts in the position shown in Figure 5.

When an emergency arises requiring that the locked door be opened, shoulder pressure exerted against the hinge edge of the door, as indicated by the arrow in Figure 1, cams the detents 9 out of sockets 8 against the resistance of springs 10 and, because of the off-set knuckles, swings the door inwardly about the lock edge, as shown in broken lines in Figure 1, and as also shown in Figure 4.

Although I have shown the pintle sections 6 as separate from the knuckles of the door leaf, they could be made integral with it or some other form of bearing provided for the detents 9, and, of course, the relation between the parts could be reversed; i. e. the detents could be carried by the knuckles 3 of the fixed door-frame leaf.

By means of my invention it is possible to gain access to a locked room from the outside without breaking down the door or destroying anything. When the emergency has passed, the door can be easily re-hung by pressing the sections of the hinge together again. When the axes of the knuckles are in alinement, the detents 9 will snap into their bearing sockets 8. The detents 9 are held in place by the shoulders l2 and the rings l3, and cannot be disengaged or lost when the door is opened as just described. Except for the off-set knuckles and the special pintle, my hinge is indistinguishable from any butt hinge used in hanging doors and can be used wherever any ordinary butt hinge can be used.

I claim:

1. A door hinge comprising a door leaf and a door frame leaf, knuckles on the leaves, the knuckles, when the hinge is closed, being offset from the plane of the door leaf in the direction of the door frame leaf, elongated detents mounted for reciprocable longitudinal movement in the knuckles of one leaf, the detents having rounded cam portions protruding from the knuckles in which they are mounted and each normally journaled within a socket in an adjacent knuckle and disengageable under transverse pressure, means for guiding the detents in reciprocable movement and for maintaining them in axial alignment, spring means bearing against the detents and normally maintaining them in their protruded positions, and means for limiting the outward movement of the detents and for retaining them in the knuckles in which they are mounted,

2. A door hinge comprising a door leaf and a door frame leaf, a pair of spaced knuckles on the door frame leaf, a knuckle on the door leaf adapted normally to be received between and aligned with the spaced knuckles on the door frame leaf, the knuckles on both leaves, when the hinge is closed, being offset from the plane of the door leaf in the direction of the door frame leaf, elongated detents mounted for reciprocable longitudinal movement in the knuckle of the door leaf, the detents having rounded cam portions protruding from opposite sides of the door leaf knuckle and each normally journaled within a socket in the adjacent door frame leaf knuckle and disengageable under transverse pressure, means for guiding the detents in reciprocable movement and for maintaining them in axial alignment, spring means bearing against the detents and normally maintaining them in their protruded positions, and means for limiting the outward movement of the detents and for retaining them in the door leaf knuckle.

WARNER STEINBACH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,004,317 Watters Sept. 26, 1911 2,477,877 Jeffrey Aug. 2, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 170,959 Canada July 25, 1916 

